Immigration Court by the Numbers: What the Published Data Says About an Orlando Case

Last updated: September 2026. Every figure on this page was read off the government or TRAC release named beside it on 1 September 2026.

If you have a case at the Orlando Immigration Court, the question underneath all the others is usually some version of "how long, and does a lawyer actually change anything." There are published numbers that speak to both. There are also numbers people quote constantly that are not in the published data at all, and it is worth knowing which is which before you make a decision with them.

What the published data covers, and what it does not

Two bodies publish immigration court statistics that anyone can check. The Executive Office for Immigration Review, which runs the courts, puts out its own adjudication statistics as dated releases. TRAC at Syracuse University publishes its own tabulations from case-by-case records it obtains from EOIR, in its Immigration Court Quick Facts.

Both are national. That is the first thing to be clear about, because it is the opposite of what most people assume. EOIR's public statistical releases do not break the backlog, the wait times, or the outcomes out by individual court, so there is no published table showing the Orlando court's own pending caseload or its own median time to a decision. TRAC's backlog tool is built to slice by immigration court, but as of 1 September 2026 its court-level tables return nothing.

So when you read a confident sentence about "the average wait at the Orlando court," ask where the number came from. It is not coming from either of these sources. Everything below carries the release and the reporting period beside it, with nothing filled in around the gaps.

How big the backlog is, and which direction it is moving

EOIR's own release, generated 24 July 2026, gives the national pending caseload by fiscal year:

• FY 2023: 2,811,599 pending
• FY 2024: 3,924,993 pending
• FY 2025: 3,722,776 pending
• FY 2026 through the third quarter: 3,469,569 pending

The backlog peaked in FY 2024 and has come down in each of the two years since. It came down because completions rose and new cases fell at the same time: EOIR recorded 1,783,905 initial receipts in FY 2024 against 705,249 completions, then 562,375 receipts against 798,808 completions in FY 2025, and 391,145 receipts against 660,343 completions through the third quarter of FY 2026. FY 2025 was the first year in this release where completions exceeded receipts; the same release shows receipts running ahead of completions in every year from FY 2016 through FY 2024.

For a person waiting, a shrinking backlog is not automatically good news. Cases close because they are decided, and a system clearing its docket faster is a system reaching your hearing date sooner, whatever you have or have not prepared by then.

TRAC counts the same period slightly differently, and the gap is instructive rather than a mistake. As of the end of June 2026, which is the same point EOIR's third quarter closes, TRAC put the active pending caseload at 3,195,137, against EOIR's 3,469,569. The two organizations define a pending case differently: EOIR's footnote counts removal, deportation, exclusion, asylum-only and withholding-only proceedings. If you cite a backlog figure, cite which one you are using.

Of TRAC's 3,195,137, 2,310,698 are people who have already filed a formal asylum application and are waiting on a hearing or a decision. That is just over 72% of the queue, on TRAC's own two figures.

What the data actually says about representation

EOIR publishes a release called Current Representation Rates, generated 18 November 2025. It reports how many people had a lawyer. It does not break outcomes out by whether they did, which is the single most quoted claim about this subject and the one the government's own statistics do not support either way.

What it reports for FY 2025:

• Completed cases, excluding in absentia orders, terminations and dismissals: 143,614 represented against 119,519 unrepresented, out of 263,133 total, a 55% representation rate
• Completed asylum cases, excluding in absentia: 186,821 represented against 56,316 unrepresented, out of 243,137, a 77% rate
• Completed cases for unaccompanied children, excluding in absentia: 10,441 against 1,240, out of 11,681, an 89% rate
• Completed case appeals: 18,292 against 5,782, out of 24,074, a 76% rate

Read those two top lines next to each other. In the general run of completed cases, a little over half the people had a lawyer. In asylum cases, more than three quarters did. Asylum is the harder application and the one where the record you build carries the case, and it is also where representation is most common. EOIR's release does not tell you which way that runs.

One footnote in that release matters more than it looks. Representation is recorded when a representative files a Form EOIR-28. Someone who has hired a lawyer whose EOIR-28 has not been filed yet is counted as unrepresented. The rates are a floor, not a precise count.

If you have seen a figure claiming represented respondents are some multiple more likely to win, it did not come from these releases. Research making that comparison does exist, but it is separate work with its own methods and periods, and it is not what these releases measure. We would rather point you at what you can check yourself.

What happens when people do not appear

The published series that speaks most directly to the value of having someone track your case is the one on orders entered when a respondent does not show up. EOIR's In Absentia Removal Orders release, also generated 24 July 2026, gives the national totals:

• FY 2021: 8,556
• FY 2022: 62,916
• FY 2023: 160,504
• FY 2024: 223,502
• FY 2025: 311,130
• FY 2026 through the third quarter: 281,867

Three quarters of FY 2026 had already produced 281,867 of these orders, against 311,130 for the whole of FY 2025. An in absentia order is a removal order entered without you in the room, and under INA § 240(b)(5)(A) it can be entered once the government shows by clear, unequivocal and convincing evidence that written notice went to your most recent address on file. The address on file is the part people control and the part they most often lose track of after a move.

Our Spanish-language guide on qué esperar en la corte de inmigración de Orlando covers the same ground for Spanish speakers, including what to do if a hearing has already been missed.

How to find your own case status and next hearing date

You do not have to infer your own timeline from any of the figures above. EOIR runs a free lookup called the Automated Case Information System. It asks for your A-Number and your nationality and returns the status of your case, and it is available in English and in Spanish.

Two cautions the system itself gives. It shows the primary case only, and if there has been more than one case under your A-Number it displays the most recent one. And it is provided for convenience: the documents the court issues, not the lookup, are what govern. For bond hearing information the system tells you to contact the court directly.

For Central Florida, that court is the Orlando Immigration Court, and the address it publishes is the one on EOIR's own listing. That listing is worth checking against any notice you are holding, because the court moved in March 2024 and old addresses are still circulating in saved PDFs.

What a lawyer does at each stage

The statistics above describe a system. What they cannot tell you is what happens inside your own file, so here is the shape of it.

At the master calendar hearing, the work is pleading to the charges in the Notice to Appear, identifying which relief you will apply for, and getting the deadlines calendared. Chapter 3.14 of the EOIR Policy Manual sets at least ten days between service of the notice and that first hearing, precisely so you can find counsel first.

At the individual, or merits, hearing, almost everything that decides the case was filed beforehand: the applications, the exhibits, the witness list. Chapter 3.15 lists what has to be in the record.

Under INA § 240(b)(4) you have the right to be represented at no expense to the government, to examine the evidence against you, to put in your own, and to cross-examine the government's witnesses. Nobody is appointed for you. Our page on representation at your immigration court hearing sets out how we handle each stage, and deportation and removal defense covers the relief applications those hearings turn on.

Methodology and sources

Every figure above comes from one of four public releases. None is estimated, averaged across sources, or carried over from an earlier version of this page.

• EOIR, Adjudication Statistics, Pending Cases, New Cases, and Total Completions. Data generated 24 July 2026. Source of the pending, receipt and completion figures by fiscal year, including FY 2026 through the third quarter. EOIR's own footnote defines pending cases as removal, deportation, exclusion, asylum-only and withholding-only proceedings.
• EOIR, Adjudication Statistics, Current Representation Rates. Data generated 18 November 2025. Source of every representation figure, all FY 2025. Representation is recorded when a Form EOIR-28 is filed.
• EOIR, Adjudication Statistics, In Absentia Removal Orders. Data generated 24 July 2026. Source of the in absentia totals by fiscal year.
• TRAC Immigration, Immigration Court Quick Facts. Figures as of the end of June 2026. Source of the 3,195,137 active pending count and the 2,310,698 asylum figure.

Statutory citations are read off the U.S. Code and the EOIR Policy Manual, both linked at the point where they are used. Where EOIR and TRAC disagree, both numbers are given rather than reconciled.

What is deliberately absent: any Orlando-specific backlog figure, median time to hearing, or local outcome rate. Those are not in the published releases, and this page will not invent them. If EOIR begins publishing court-level tables, or TRAC's court-level tool starts returning data again, this page will be updated and the date above will change with it.

Cite this page

You are welcome to quote or republish any figure here with attribution and a link. Every heading and every headline number on this page carries a stable anchor id, so you can link to a specific figure rather than the whole page.

Immigration Law Center. "Immigration Court by the Numbers: What the Published Data Says About an Orlando Case." Orlando, Florida. Reviewed September 2026.

This article is general information about published statistics, not legal advice about your case. Filing deadlines and eligibility turn on facts specific to you.

Photo by Zachary Caraway on Pexels. A courtroom interior, shown for illustration; it is not the Orlando Immigration Court.